Posts Tagged ‘solidarity’

Navigating between extinction and enslavement, brave humankind could very well avoid both to reach compelling new heights.

Neils Bohr once said that prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future. Despite the words of caution from the pioneering quantum physicist, I’d like to offer you my take on the three potential futures that we, as a species, are facing.

The first is extinction. This is where the human race is no more because we’ve wiped ourselves out in some foolish conflict or scientific mishap. Either that, or the universe conspires to eliminate us using it’s vast arsenal. There’s not a lot we can do to avoid this, apart from building peace instead of war.

The good news, despite what the mainstream media may want us to believe, is that humankind is actually the most peaceful we’ve ever been. (more…)

There is a circle of about 70000 people, far less than 1% of the world’s population, who are considered ultra high net worth individuals, meaning they personally control over 30 million in US dollars. Like modern day royalty, these privileged few sit atop the world’s power structures, and have tremendous ability to dictate how the world works.

As top dogs of earth’s largest corporations and overseers of all the major industries, these select few get to expand their already massive fortunes off the backs of everyone else, many of whom are starving.

Yet we rarely hear about this because earth’s financial frontrunners also control the planet’s mainstream media companies, of which there are now 6 – down from 50 just a few decades ago. This big 6 monopoly provides well over 90% of what the world reads and hears as news and information. And every one of these 6 companies share the same general agenda for profits, along with a broader theme of keeping the public uninformed, fearful and distracted, all of which makes the population easier to govern.

Speaking of government, the top 70000 also have incredible sway when it comes to politics. It takes huge sums of money to run for high office, and even more to win. This means politicians are most often indebted to the people and businesses who’ve paid for their election victory. Once in office, they will repay the favor by bending the system towards their benefactors – undermining democracy and corrupting the political landscape.

Over time, as the system keeps catering towards to business interests, the whole world starts to functions like a giant corporation, where everything – people, life, and even the air we breathe – all get turned into commodities from which to extract maximum profits.

So, with that said, it may seem like this super rich circle are the most powerful group on earth, but there is a group with even more influence. It’s an ancient international organization with enough power to completely crush the top tiny percent if they were so inclined. This supremely powerful group is…. the entire human race. Its The 7 billion humans hold the true power, not the super-rich 70000.

But only by working together can we unleash this limitless force. The stronger we make our global community of people, the more we can seize the reigns that control the planet, and help steer humanity towards a brighter future for everybody.

When it comes to human organizations, be it a business, a religious institution, or the population of an entire country, what most often develops is a pyramid type structure. The leaders with the most power sit at the top, and then with each step you take down the ladder you get larger groups of people holding a decreasing amount of individual influence.

Within most of the world’s various pyramids there is a power struggle taking place between pretty much everyone involved. But the more disorganized and divided the groups at the bottom, the greater the ability for those at the top dictate what happens to the rest of the population.

These leaders, like every human on earth, are inherently selfish and will inevitably try to sway the system in their own favor, which usually means the rest of us get screwed.

Fortunately, in most places on earth, a peoples uprising has begun. The Occupy movement, the arab spring, the SOPA protests. And its not just the bottom rung getting involved. People from all parts of the pyramid have grown tired of the inherent injustice of the system.

The 99% are uniting, throwing themselves upon the levers of power. As millions upon millions of humans flip the mental switch from passive to engaged, the masses involved will be enough to force the system to function more to everyone’s benefit, and less to just those at the top.

This unification is just awesome, because once the 99% start coming together within individual pyramids, its just a few more steps to uniting the world’s 99%. And when that happens, we won’t have major armed conflicts on earth anymore. I’m talking about World peace, and it could be here within the decade!

See, war happens when leaders of one pyramid pit their own 99% against another leader’s 99%. So what ends up happening is two groups people who are pretty much the same end up fighting and killing each other when they could just as easily coexist peacefully.

Yet only with the vantage point to see war this way will we do away with it forever. And this is exactly what the Internet is giving us. Never before have we been more connected, and social cohesion around the globe will only tighten. We are awakening to see we really are one people, and that allowing our governments to wage war only worsens the world in which we all live.

Just keep uniting the world’s 99%. Together, we’ll have the power to stop the 1% who’ve been hurting the rest of us.

Some of the delinquents responsible for looting and torching parts of London have relied on social media to mobilize their misdeeds. Others are just using instant messages to brag about injuring police officers.

The clean-up initiative follows on the heels of another populist movement being coordinated online – Operation Cup of Tea. The idea is to take a stand against the riots by quietly enjoying a spot of Tea. Over 200,000 people got involved.

So here we see the real power of social media. Twitter, Facebook, and the like – they are all bringing us together and helping us to see how much in common we all have. Perhaps more importantly, the Internet shows us just how many people feel the same way we do.

Now imagine what will be possible when, instead of only hundreds of thousands of united people, there’s hundreds of millions, all acting simultaneously to effect positive change on the world.

With that kind of power, incredible things will be entirely possible! Even building a lasting peace on earth.

Alan Strachan put up a nice piece over at Common Dreams, summoning his fellow citizens to move from trance to moral outrage, as the powers that be continually strip wealth and freedom from the population.

The Mega-Rich have declared war against ordinary Americans:

Although current circumstances have not been labeled as such, we are in another Civil War. This time it is not the North against the South. This time it is the Mega-Rich against ordinary Americans.

It is the Mega-Rich who have declared and are waging this war. To do so they have bought politicians from both political parties, in order to change laws and regulations, so that they are free to do as they wish. And what they wish is to make as much money as possible and to increase their power in every way possible, even when that means sending ordinary Americans into poverty, destroying the environment, and gutting democracy. They will stop at nothing, and they take no responsibility for the terrible consequences of their greed.

Make no mistake about it: the Mega-Rich have been getting what they want, and the US government has been enabling them to do so…. Now it is inescapably clear that Democrats as well as Republicans are firmly entrenched in policies that undermine democracy and line the pockets of the Mega-Rich and their corporations.

Strachan concludes that it is time for regular people to rise up and reclaim power:

To passively wait for someone to save us – hoping for a political leader who speaks about and acts upon [our values] — is naïve and ineffectual. We, the People – you, and I – have the power to lead. We must lead our leaders, and show them the way. It is up to us to restore democracy.

When the wealthy and powerful go too far – as they always will if we allow them to – it is up to the People to restore the moral order, to restore democracy. It is up to us to remind our “leaders” – who are supposed to be “public servants,” not corporate lackeys – that “democracy” is People power. Not Mega-Rich power, but People power.

Strachan’s sentiments are shared by many, myself included. I first recognized the power of unity to balance the world’s inequalities at least six years ago, as the many benefits of solidarity amongst humanity were highlighted in the “Global Unity” section of my first book (which is available online). Here’s a sample:

Everyone stands to gain from a united world. A world of peace means we live with less fear and a higher quality of life. Global unity will also help to secure our children’s future and the survival of our species.

Not only will global unity benefit everyone directly, it represents an opportunity to do something that has never before been done on earth – we could unite on a global scale. Global unity will be an accomplishment we can all be proud of.

In a world where nations cooperate, we will no longer have to fear foreign invasion or nuclear annihilation. With global unity, we also get the personal security that comes from knowing that if either ourselves or a loved one becomes sick or injured, the world is more able to help.

Another benefit of global unity will be an increase to nearly everyone’s economic situation – which means more money! We will be able to take control of our world’s wealth and divert the profits of humanity’s labour into social services, like health care and education, which are investments into our future.

The first surplus of wealth comes from the trillions of dollars spent on military budgets. With no one left to fight, the world’s war machine can be dismantled, which is something everyone should want, if not for themselves, then for their family.

Over the past decade, our world has come together more than throughout the rest of human history combined. 10 short years, and we’re more interconnect than ever before! Now, just imagine how tight-knit we’ll all be in just a few more years, once more people get connected and become engaged netizens.

This transformation will be incredible! When humans work together, there’s nothing we can’t do. And when we work together on a global scale, well, it puts amazing things – like creating world peace and ending starvation – squarely within our reach.